What is Exercise HAMEL?

Exercise Hamel, which takes its name from a battle fought in France in 1918, has been designed to develop, confirm, and evaluate the foundation war fighting skills of Darwin’s 1st Brigade and assigned Force Elements within a Joint Task Force setting.

Soldiers to descend on Shoalwater for Exercise Hamel

On 21 June 2012 more than 9000 Australian Defence Force personnel, together with 150 members of the United States Marine Corps and 25 medics from the New Zealand Defence Force, will commence the Army’s annual foundation war fighting exercise in Central Queensland.

Once the foundation war fighting skills of the 1st Brigade and their assigned Force Elements has been assessed and certified, they will enter the ready phase of the Force Generation Cycle. This ensures the 1st Brigade and their assigned force elements are trained and equipped to deploy on any future contingency operations.

This year Exercise Hamel will take place in the Shoalwater Bay Training Area from 21 June – 18 July 2012. Leading up to Exercise Hamel, personnel and equipment from Darwin’s 1st Brigade participated in a series of exercises called Predator’s Run and Predator’s Strike to prepare for Exercise Hamel.

The Australian Army, in effort to provide the Australian Government with a ready, relevant and agile land force, must ensure soldiers have foundation war fighting skills necessary to conduct future operations. Exercise Hamel is an important function in training the Army’s personnel in order to meet these requirements.

Darwin’s 1st Brigade is in the ‘readying’ phase of the Force Generation Cycle. This is where the Brigade recommences collective training, prepares for missions and is evaluated during a major exercise. Once certified after conducting Exercise Hamel 2012, they will enter the ‘ready’ phase and will be prepared to deploy on operations.

About the Battle of Hamel

The Battle of Hamel (4 Jul 1918) was a successful attack launched by the Australian Imperial Force and several American units against German positions in and around the town of Hamel in Northern France. The battle was commanded by Lieutenant General John Monash who employed the new tactics of combined arms tactics to successfully complete the battle in 93 minutes (previous battles using conventional tactics lasted for weeks or months with high casualty rates). The battle of Hamel paved the way for the allied victory in the First World War.